We are so blessed

I love driving to the western coast of American Samoa. The beaches seem so much cleaner and there are a lot less people. Of course, they are too dangerous to swim in, but they are beautiful to look at.

This is one of my favorite pictures looking down on the village of Agugulu. I drove here with the kids right before school started for one last fun outing before classes began. We drove to Pritchard’s bakery in Leone and bought donuts, and then ate them in the fale overlooking the ocean. It was great.

The hard part is seeing all of the poverty that exists between Leone and Agugulu. These people were hit hard by the Tsunami a couple of years ago, and many homes and lives were lost. FEMA donated lots of tents for people to live in, and two years later, many people still live in them, with no electricity or running water. Here are some photos along the way. Makes it hard to drive past knowing that you’re just going to hang out with your kids eating chocolate donuts, but we can’t just lock ourselves up in our house and ignore this beautiful island just because we feel bad either. I really wish that there was more that we could do to help. At the very least our children are learning to see how truly blessed we are. We are becoming much less materialistic, and we are trying hard to focus on loving everyone and giving service.

Check out this you tube video. It’ll make you feel grateful for what you have, and determined to do more for those who have less.